Biliran opens ‘shelter’ for residents with patients in Tacloban
TACLOBAN CITY – The Biliran provincial government has opened an accommodation facility near the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) for residents whose family members are admitted to the region’s largest hospital.
The facility is a three-bedroom house called “Balay Biliranon”, with each room accommodating at least six persons.
The lodging facility, which is a brainchild of Governor Gerard Roger Espina, is the first of its kind in the region.
The local government will also set up a kitchen room, put television sets, and install an Internet connection inside the halfway house. Staying at the facility is free for all Biliran residents.
“Those who have no place to stay may go to our Balay Biliranon while waiting for the discharge of their family members from the hospital,” Espina said in a phone interview Monday.
The official led the ribbon cutting of the facility on July 15 at the Peerless Village in Bagacay village, just across the EVRMC, the region’s major referral hospital.
“We are looking forward to the upcoming projects that we will implement and hoping that if this becomes a success, we may also build one in Cebu and Manila to help Biliran residents taking board exams, going to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), or any transactions but has no place to stay in these areas,” Espina added.
Meanwhile, the provincial government will implement a program to help poor senior citizens who need maintenance drugs.
“We are also planning to implement a house-to-house approach of sending maintenance medicines to poor elderlies. Instead of them going to the rural health unit, the medicine will be delivered right at their doorstep,” Espina said.
Espina said this program might tap out-of-school youth in villages who will be tasked with delivering the medicine to beneficiaries. Philippine News Agency
